79 reviews of this school

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Mackintosh Academy5

Posted February 15, 2015
- a parent

Neg reviews-Mack Boulder.Woman Head of School Littleton.Same board-VERY different schools. Littleton-been around very long time & deep rooted in educating gifted children. Gifted testing part of admission process. LOVE the school, the teachers, & the families. The community truly feels like a family. Teachers truly care, & are in great contact with parents. We get weekly e-mails of what the children are studying each week in school-with pics, & personal e-mails any time there is something specific for our child. We have been at Mack for 3 years. Projects are amazing, show their creativity, & knowledge gained. Social/emotional is part of IB curriculum. They really do educate the whole child, & respect the uniqueness of each child. Our ratios: 2:12, 2:17, 2:18. I am friends with all of his teachers. They work together with me as a team to do what is best for my son to help him thrive in every way. All are fantastic educators: friendly, caring, nurturing, & well-skilled at gifted education. My son had been bullied horrifically before Mack. Mack is a safe environment. He has been fine. I cannot sing enough praises of Mackintosh. So glad my child is getting to go. Worth every penny!

I'm afraid I agree with the one-star parent review from Jan 2015. Entirely. The school is not ready for prime time and may never be the school I had hoped it would be. The new headmaster is dedicated, however, his vision does not include academic excellence. His response to concrete concerns seems to be run away or argue the point. Curriculum and classroom resources were not the top of his list. Discipline, I have seen my child hit on the head by lunch boxes several times and no adult intervention. No wonder he hates school and does not feel safe. It's a terrible disappointment. It is true to say we have a fantastic teacher that we have faith in, however, future years do not look as consistent. Seems unfair to my child to take the risk that the school will improve fast enough and in the right direction to meet our needs.

We have an amazing teacher for our child. However, other issues with the school far outweigh the teaching. There are glaring issues that need to be addressed with the school. There is a total lack of written, structured system of rules, policies and procedures. I asked for a parent handbook, nada. Despite the fact that our child has been tested and is highly gifted, we found that they do not require testing of any sort as part of the application process. The schools seems to bank on the attraction of gifted to a gifted school, and a half day to full day visit to a classroom as their identification process. The teachers all state that they have experience with gifted, but its really hard to confirm, as well as confirm accreditation. There are serious inconsistencies in dealing with asynchronous learners, especially with children several deviations away from the norm. The leadership seems to be even less capable of dealing with highly gifted issues. In our experience the school seems to cater to the money and aim to meet the needs of kids just above the norm. Not worth the money for the highly gifted.

Someone who has the inability to realize that s/he keeps writing 5-star reviews with a discernible pattern keeps coming to try and counter negative reviews from real parents. 11/20/14 "patient, insightful, enthusiastic, adept and supportive" and "happy, engaged, knowledgeable and empowered" 11/14/14 "gracious, thoughtful, fair, and future minded" and "leadership, new enrollments, new marketing strategies, and new teachers" 3/7/14 "embrace learning, innovating, critical thinking, and most importantly, each other" 7/24/13 "more tenured leaders, a collaborative, experienced and supportive team of teachers, what appears to be positive cohesion and commitment" It's hard sometimes to notice your own writing patterns. But when you read the other ones? You can hear the variety of voices writing them. Just as easily as you can tell that someone with a penchant for 'a, b, c, and d' adjective lists has written all of the glowing reviews. Not terribly surprising from a school that hired a marketing Director to combat the increasingly negative word-of-mouth. Read skeptically, the way you hope your gifted child will.

After 3 years and 2 kids in the Primary Years at Mack Littleton we couldn't be happier with the professionalism, support, accommodation and community. Our kids are challenged and held accountable with kindness and compassion. Thriving academically, emotionally and socially they are coached in every aspect of their learning to take risks, inquire, communicate, contribute, make connections with the material and peers, and live respectfully. The focus on the whole child with their strengths AND quirks was a game changer for us. The staff is patient, insightful, enthusiastic, adept and supportive with this community of unique learners. The IB Programme fits well with our kids' creative learning styles, the differentiation is meeting our needs, and the social emotional focus has been transformative for our daughter. Past leaders/changes and facilities/resources were/are not always what we wish for, but things improve each year with the very committed, established and experienced Littleton staff. My kids come home happy, engaged, knowledgeable and empowered. It won't be a good fit for every child/family but it was life-changing for ours. Vet what's important to you and you'll know.

This is a typical small private school. The teachers let the bullys run the place, not enough math levels, nepotism, not enough during and after-school opportunities, and some yelling teachers. Save your money the neighborhood schools are better.

I have a 2e middle schooler and transferred here from the Public school-- it is the best thing I could have done! I wonder if the poor reviews are from parents who have not compared it to other schools, especially other public schools, and have unrealistic expectations. Mackintosh is caring and passionate about learning.

This school does not help highly gifted children, just wealthy people with bright children. Most of the teachers left have no idea how to really challenge gifted children. The ideals if this school are great. What they say they will do is great, but it doesn't happen. They are so desperate for teachers that they hire anyone. The school simply doesn't live up to what it promises which is so sad because gifted children really do need a place like this. Luckily there are other options I suggest looking into them.

We loved some of the teachers and students at the Boulder campus, but as far as the administration goes, whoever was in charge of holding the vision and accountability is gone from the building and they left the prisoners with the keys. Crazy town. If your child doesn't need accommodation you will do better here. We have a 2e guy and felt like we were in some sort of dysfunctional family fun bus. No thanks. We Can get that for free in the public school system. Not worth the $$.

I have just experienced my first year as a parent at Macintosh Academy, Littleton Campus and look very forward to my child attending many more years at this school. Our family has found the community of children/parents to be very welcoming and helpful; the administrative staff to be gracious, thoughtful, fair, and future minded; the teaching staff to be seasoned, caring, and lovingly creative when behavioral remedies have been necessary in the classroom with any child; and the IB curriculum to be well-suited for our gifted daughter. As with any educational facility, business, organization, corporation, partnership, family, couple or individual even - change is guaranteed. I suspect new leadership, new enrollments, new marketing strategies, and new teachers will bring about new thinking. It often does. Thus we are optimistic with the upcoming changes and will miss terribly the individuals that are departing. We highly recommend Mackintosh Academy, Littleton to anyone with gifted children who finds value in open-minded education enveloped in a challenging environment of care and understanding.